Unreturned Love

Chapter 12

Leeane approached the prone figure cautiously. He was lying down on the bed. Small snoring sounds could be heard vaguely. As she moved closer, Leeane could smell the distinct odour of alcohol. "Drunken stupor", she gagged, pinching her nose to block off the stench. There was only one way she knew to wake him up. Moving into the bathroom, she poured herself a glass of cold water, and splashed it onto Finn. No reaction. Leeane splashed a second cup. Slight stirring. On the third cup, Finn jerked up, gasping and dripping.

"What the-" It probably wasn't a very good idea for him to talk, Leeane mused as Finn erupted into a violent bout of coughing. "Oh my god..." He began to clench his head tightly, and Leeane could see the veins on his forehead popping out.

"Mr Gerald? Are you alright?" Leeane moved forward, amusement turning into concern. But Finn took no notice of her, but collapsed into the bed. It was only then that Leeane realized he was having a hangover. Amusement flitted through her again. Poor guy. Probably hasn't drunk much in his life. She simply stood there, grinning at him, until a particularly loud groan jerked into motion. Leeane strode over to the messily strewn bags lined on the table, and searched through them, finding what she had placed there the night before. She emerged with a bottle of pills and shook several out.

"Here, take some of these. You'll feel better", Leeane ordered. With his head still buried under the pillow, Finn reached a hand out and began to grope about in the air. Struggling to muffle her laughter, Leeane caught his hang and stuffed the pills inside. Finn took them, and gulped them down without water.

"I still have a killer headache", he glared at Leeane, as though it was her fault.

"Hey, they take time to work"  Leeane noted.

"Uhh... What happened here?" Finn mumbled, waving a hand vaguely around the room.

"You're asking me?" Leeane commented dryly. "I was about to ask you that".

Finn frowned. He couldn't remember anything after the ball. Except... All of a sudden, his eyes turned wide, and he spun around, grasping Leeane by the shoulders. "Where's Kayline?"

Startled by the abrupt change, Leeane stuttered a little. "Uhh... I'm not sure... She came to her room to change, but she never went back to our- Hey where you going?

But Finn didn't reply as he dashed out of the room. It had suddenly dawned on him what had happened. And he had just realized what HE had done. Where would she go? Home. He was sure of it. And so he began a mad dash to the car-park, forcing his key into the keyhole, and sped off.

I better not be too late. Thin thought grimly. Too late for what, he didn't know, but he felt that he needed to talk to Kayline as soon as possible. But obviously, someone was clearly intent on slowing him down. No sooner had he gotten onto the highway, when he was intercepted by a police car. Groaning, Finn pulled up.

"Name?"

"Finn Gerald"

"You were speeding"

"Obviously..."

"Drivers license, please?"

Mutely, Finn handed it over to the officer, who scrutinized it carefully.

"I can smell alcohol on you, sir".

Mentally, Finn cursed. "Oh?".

"Please hold on a second while I take the breathalyser".

While the police officer ducked into his patrol car, Finn considered making a run for it. Regretfully, he realized he would never make it. Left without a choice, Finn accepted the gadget and breathed into it. The officer looked at the results, and raised his eyebrows. "Please come with me to the police station, sir. You're way over the limit". 

Finn sighed. Things were obviously not going his way today.

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"Finally!" Michael erupted when Leeane returned back to the room. "We were about to send a search party after you! You know how long you took! Half an hour, no less! And-"

"Wait a minute", Tim cut in. "Where's Kayline?" He asked slowly, noting that Leeane returned alone.

"She has gone", Leeane replied absently, picking up her purse. "And I need to go too".

"Woah, woah, woah" Michael raised his hand to pull Leeane back. "Won't you even explain to us what's going on?".

Leeane regarded the two of them for a second. "No, it'd take too long", she sidestepped Michael, and went out of the room. They could hear the rapid click of her heels fading, until they could hear it no more.

The two boys stared at one another. "Well, I suppose there goes out game of truth or dare". Tim shrugged, then slumped back onto the bed. "Now would be a good opportunity to catch up on some lost sleep".

Michael snorted, and nudged Tim. "Aren't you even the least bit curious as to where out two dates went to?"

Tim considered it. "Not really", he decided. "They were both rather eccentric anyway".

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"Look, I really need to go", Finn pleaded in the police station, where he sat opposite an intimidating police officer, the same who had stopped him on the road.

Officer Ryan, as his name-tag read, looked up, slightly harassed. "Look kid, we all have to do our business here", he growled, and returned back to the sheaf of papers he had been shuffling. Mental, Finn groaned.

"Listen, I have this concert that I'm like, really late for", Finn bluffed, wincing at himself for not being able to think of something better. Oddly enough, it seemed to get the officer's attention.

"In a tuxedo?"

Shit... He'd forgotten that he was indeed wearing a tuxedo. "Uhh. My girlfriend's idea..."

"You're going tonight? To the Rock's concert?" He looked up, interested. Finn stared. Who on earth was the Rock? But it didn't matter.

"Uhh, yeah! It's really great, and I'm kinda late for it now" He tried to gush, wondering at his extreme luck for getting a rock buff, AND a concert actually taking place today.

"Oh... Well in that case... I suppose we don't really need you for anything then" The officer stared down at his work wistfully. "Seriously, if I weren't on duty, I'd have brought tickets..." Sadly, he waved Finn off as a dismissal.

Hardly believing his luck, Finn stood cautiously, then when the officer made no move to stop him, he dashed out of the police. Behind him, he heard the officer call out "have a good time at the concert"

"I will" Finn yelled back, before dashing to his car.

It took him a few minutes of stunned silence, marvelling at his extreme good fortune, before he was able to start the car, and drive towards Kayline's place. Under the speed limit, of course.

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It was rather dark by the time he reached Kayline's place. He left his car by the street, not wanting to drive in and alarm Kayline. Instead, he cut the engine outside, then walked out, The night air was chilly, and he shivered involuntarily under his coat.  As he walked, Kayline's house came into view, and he noted with satisfaction that the living room light was indeed turned on. Finn stood there for a moment, debating what should be said. At last, he gave up, decided he'd just play it by ear, and jogged up the porch stairs.

The first thing he noticed was that the door was left slightly open, and light spilled out onto the steps below. Finn frowned at it, wondering why Kayline would have left the door open. Unless, of course, she was expecting someone. Which made no sense either. Deciding that he'd make sense of it later, Finn slowly pushed the door open, and blinked several times in rapid succession to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating.

Leeane sat on the sofa, reading a magazine. When the door open, and Finn stepped in, she merely flicked a glance at him, and smirked. "You're finally here".